CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., July 21, 2011 - Take Care Health Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walgreens (NYSE, NASDAQ: WAG) and the nation's largest and most comprehensive manager of convenient care clinics and worksite health and wellness centers, now provides patients with simple access to information at www.takecarehealth.com on estimated wait times, quality of care and cost of services at Take Care Clinics across the country. The focus of the revamped website is to allow patients and payers to make more informed decisions regarding their health care needs.
Transparency in Cost and Quality of Health Care Services
A comprehensive cost menu is available at the new www.takecarehealth.com allowing patients to quickly evaluate the cost of services before visiting a Take Care Clinic. The revamped website also offers local and up-to-date information on patient satisfaction scores and market-specific quality of care scores based on National Center for Quality Assurance Health Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) guidelines. HEDIS guidelines are used by more than 90 percent of America's health plans to measure performance on health care delivery.
“A knowledgeable and empowered patient is in the best position to make smart choices on where and how they’ll go about accessing their health care,” said Charles Stellar, executive vice president of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). “To drive better health outcomes at lower costs, providers should increasingly look to offer patients and consumers easily accessible information on the quality and price of their services. Walgreens and Take Care Health’s decision to offer access to HEDIS information, patient experience metrics and service costs through a consumer-facing website is a strong template for improving transparency in health care.”
Removing Barriers to Care
Take Care Clinics have historically simplified patient access to health care services by providing a walk-in care setting with evening and weekend hours and an easy-to-use registration kiosk. The new www.takecarehealth.com makes accessing care even easier by giving patients and their families visibility to real-time information on wait times, vaccine availability and accepted insurance plans.
“Leading payers, managed care organizations and health systems are striving to offer patients a simpler and easier health care experience,” said Heather Helle, Walgreens divisional vice president for Take Care Health’s Consumer Solutions Group. “Access to relevant and tangible information on quality and cost at Take Care Clinics removes traditional barriers to transparency, allowing patients to take a more proactive and informed role in choosing what the best and most cost-effective care setting is for them.”
A 2010 study published in the peer reviewed journal Health Affairs noted that alternative sites for health care, including retail clinics and urgent care centers, could alleviate unnecessary emergency department overcrowding and save the health care system billions of dollars. The research showed that up to one in four visits to the emergency department could take place at retail clinics or urgent care centers, with a potential cost savings of $4.4 billion annually. According to the research, retail clinics such as Take Care Clinics have also been shown to save patients $279 to $460 per visit compared with emergency department costs.
“With the advent of consumer-driven systems such as high-deductible health plans, today’s patients and payers are more motivated than ever to comparison shop for health care services,” said Sandra Festa Ryan, RN, MSN, CPNP, FAANP and chief nurse practitioner officer for Take Care Health Systems. “The new www.takecarehealth.com provides the tools that will allow patients to make smarter choices about where and how they seek care, which in turn offers a significant opportunity to drive down costs and improve outcomes.”
Take Care Clinics are walk-in, professional health care centers located at select Walgreens drugstores across the country. Board-certified family nurse practitioners and physician assistants treat patients 18 months and older for common illnesses, offer preventive services such as vaccines and physicals and are licensed to write prescriptions, when necessary, that can be filled at the patient’s pharmacy of choice.
About Walgreens
Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2010 sales of $67 billion. The company operates 7,733 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each day, Walgreens provides nearly 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.
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